Well, she supposed a perfect solution would be knowing that she could go home any time she wanted to and come back, but she wasn’t certain that she even trusted the gateway for
one
more trip. That was part of her dilemma—she didn’t even know if she gave up Colwin and Aydin that she would have her family back home. She didn’t know where she might end up or even what time. The anxiety about ending up in a different time than her own might not even be a possibility, but she didn’t
know
it wouldn’t be.
All she had was uncertainty.
The baby, if she did become pregnant, would be her lodestone, she decided.
She felt guilty about encouraging Colwin and Aydin to make love to her at every opportunity when she hadn’t made up her mind. She thought it was unfair to them in a sense, and yet it was Russian Roulette in a very real sense. The more often they played, she reasoned, the more likely that they would all win and, if nothing else, maybe they would remember her with fondness as a lover.
She knew she was never going to forget them, never going to get over leaving if she did. She was going to regret it. If she hadn’t been so worried that she wouldn’t be able to give them the children she wanted, that would’ve been the deciding factor—her absolute certainty that she was going to be miserable without them.
She didn’t know whether to be glad or sorry when Colwin and Aydin discovered familiar landmarks a little than a week after they’d left the mountain. She supposed she was both. She was happy for them because they were clearly excited about reaching the summer camping grounds. She was unhappy for herself because she knew her time was running out.
Chapter Fourteen
The similarity to an Indian village from the old west, Emma decided, was striking and yet the stockade fence surrounding the outer perimeter reminded her more of the military outposts from that time. It didn’t look weathered enough to have been erected very long ago, and she wondered if they built a new one every time they moved or if this particular wall just hadn’t been there long.
Aydin answered the question. “It is strange to see a wall around the summer camp. Until a few summers ago we resisted the notion of building one and yet the hoonan attacks since they found this place made it necessary.”
He shook his head in disgust. “It mars the beauty of the land.”
Emma supposed she should’ve been glad he’d brought it up. It reminded her that ‘her kind’ weren’t particularly liked among the centaurs. She braced herself for an unpleasant welcome, which was just as well.
The gate was opened. Almost the moment, they walked through, the centaurs in the village stopped what they were doing and straightened to stare at them or, more specifically, she knew, her.
She felt Aydin tense at their reception, but he seemed to determined to ignore the stares, heading for some particular area of the camp. When he stopped and looked around in confusion, she glanced at Colwin. He was frowning, as well.
“Teagan and Chandler have gone to join King Dresden to fight the hoonans.”
Aydin and Colwin turned at the sound of the voice and Emma found herself staring at a young, beautiful centaurian woman. She was as golden as Colwin and so young and pretty Emma immediately felt her hackles rise—especially when she noticed the speculative look she raked over both Colwin and Aydin.
“Where is our mother, Leena?” Colwin asked sharply.
“They took her back to the city. All of those who decided to ride with the king took their women to the city.”
“King Dresden was here?” Emma asked in surprise.
The woman flicked a glance at her and then apparently decided to snub her by pretending she hadn’t heard her. “Will you two be joining the warriors who have gone to defeat the hoonans?”
Colwin and Aydin exchanged a look.
“Thank you, Leena,” Aydin said politely. Turning away from her, he headed deeper into the village. To Emma’s surprise and relief, they kept going, passing all of the tents erected, passing through a huge field under cultivation and finally reaching a wide river that seemed to bend around the fields almost as if it was manmade. Without pause, they waded in and began swimming across.
“There isn’t a stockade wall back here,” Emma murmured in surprise.
Aydin threw her a glance over his shoulder. “Hoonans have an aversion to water. They cannot swim. The stockade is not necessary here.”
Emma shrugged. “I doubt the water stops many arrows.”
Colwin sent her a sharp look and glanced back. “The village is well beyond the range of an arrow.”
“But not the fields. If they shot fire arrows, they could burn them down.”
“You saw this in movies, as well?” Aydin asked, amusement threading his voice.
“So? At least some of it was based on things that really happened—or at least
could
have happened. Fire was used as a weapon throughout our history, going back to when they were shooting arrows at each other.”
Colwin moved alongside. “What do they shoot at one another now?”
Emma grimaced. “Bullets.” She saw that he didn’t know what she was talking about and considered how to describe it. “It’s sort of like when you put the rocks in the sling and swung it around until it was spinning really fast. The bullets are made out of metal, so they’re harder than rocks and they’re shot from a gun which can propel them fast enough they can go right through a person.”
Colwin digested that. “So, although you come from a more civilized world, men still kill one another,” he said neutrally.
He was so right, she felt defensive about it. “And women. We have women who are soldiers—warriors—too.”
“Our women are also warriors, although, of course, not when they are breeding.”
Emma blinked at him surprise. They were really ‘in’ to equal opportunity! “So … you consider women your equals?”
Colwin chuckled. “They are strong, but very few are as strong as even the weakest male. I have never thought about it. They have their strengths and we have ours. Ideally, mates compliment one another. Each fulfills certain things the other cannot.”
A+, Emma thought, smiling at him appreciatively.
When they made camp that night, she showed him how very much she cherished his open-mindedness and appreciation of the female gender. She realized he hadn’t just said it because he thought she wanted or expected it either. In the first place, it was clearly an honest answer. In the second, she’d had plenty of time to see he felt that way. He and Aydin had taken it as a matter of course that she wasn’t as strong as them and needed their protection and help when it came to strenuous things and at the same time they’d appreciated what she gave them instead of demanding payment for services rendered.
Of course, neither of them had been at all happy about her feeble attempts to protect them, but she knew it was because they were afraid, and rightly so, that she was taking on a task she wasn’t suited for. She still wasn’t sorry she’d gone rabid and fought that bastard guard like a wildcat, but she shuddered at the memory, realizing how lucky she was that he hadn’t killed her for attacking him.
They’d been so warm in their appreciation of her bravery and engenuity in getting them out of prison that she’d been embarrassed at all the praise—especially when it had been more dumb luck, determination, and pure terror than actual skill or bravery. It wasn’t hard being modest about it under the circumstances and she thought she was going to be having nightmares about the entire ‘adventure’ for years.
Emma was shocked at the city. That lecherous bitch that had looked Aydin and Colwin over like tenderloins had called it a city, but she really hadn’t expected it to
be
one!
Sprawled atop a mountain plateau, it was almost as inaccessible as the village of the lost tribe except for the fact that it didn’t have a secret assess but very well made road leading up to it.
None of the buildings were tall but all of them were solidly build of stone and very well crafted.
Emma was a nervous wreck by the time the door opened to admit them. The woman on the other side gaped at them for a long moment and then uttered a squeal of absolute delight, throwing herself at Colwin so hard he jolted at the impact.
“Col! Baby! Oh my god! I’ve been worried sick!”
He embraced her in a tight hug, reddening a little and looking vastly uncomfortable when she began sobbing and berating him for getting himself caught by the hoonans. Finally, she pulled away and launched herself at Aydin, kissing and hugging him with equal enthusiasm and pelting him with the same mixture of praise and castigation she’d thrown at Colwin.
Emma shifted uneasily, embarrassed and uncomfortable to be a stranger in the middle of what was obviously a family reunion. Colwin caught her hand when she started to inch away, however.
“Mother.”
Sniffing, mopping at her eyes and nose, she pulled away from Aydin and looked a question at him before she spotted Emma. Surprise flickered in her eyes, and then speculation. After studying Emma for a long moment, she glanced from Colwin to Aydin.
“This is Emma,” Colwin said a little awkwardly.
The woman smiled suddenly, a warm, friendly smile. “Emma! What a pretty little thing you are! Come in! Come in! Don’t just stand on the doorstep.”
The moment they were inside she lifted her head. “Claire! Jordan! Come see! Your brothers are back and they’ve brought their mate!”
Emma shared a horrified look with Colwin and Aydin. She didn’t think she felt anymore dismayed and uncomfortable than they did.
Aydin cleared his throat. “Actually …,” he mumbled uncomfortably.
He didn’t manage to get anything else out. A dark haired young centaur female and a golden young male who looked to be around twenty, came galloping down the stairs and flung themselves enthusiastically at Colwin and Aydin.
Wishing she was almost anywhere else, Emma moved back out of the way, glancing at the stairs.
She saw a baby centaur peering around the curve of the stairs at her and her heart executed a nearly painful flip-flop. She smiled tentatively at the child, more than half expecting him to duck and hide. Instead, he grinned at her and bounded down the stairs.
“Unca Col! Unca Ade! Who’s the pretty lady?”
Aydin turned and smiled at her, lifting his hand. When she took it, he drew her close. “This is Emma.”
“No hooves in the house!” their mother said briskly. “It’s too noisy!”
The four adult centaurs shared a tolerant smile and shifted.
Clair gathered the baby close and ruffled his hair affectionately. “You, too, Caleb! You know the rules! We don’t want to make your new aunt uncomfortable, do we? You can do it!”
Caleb squeezed his eyes closed, obviously focusing hard and struggling with transition. A few moments passed and then, abruptly, he shifted into human form.
Emma blinked at him, trying not to notice that the child was completely naked.
“There! Aren’t you smart!”
Colwin and Aydin displayed an appropriate reaction to what was clearly a new accomplishment for him.
“He’s only just learning to shift,” Claire said confidentally to Emma, “but we’re so proud of him! He’s only four. Usually, babies are much older—at least six—before they can shift.”
Emma was impressed—not she wouldn’t have been anyway considering she couldn’t shift at all! “He is a clever boy, isn’t he? Only four and so advanced in his … uh … skills!”
They settled in the living room—a very large, very comfortable room—to fill each over in with their news. Clair and Abby kept hopping up and dashing off to tend the meal in progress—which Emma could smell and it was a
divine
smell! Eventually, however, Colwin and Aydin managed to give them a heavily edited version of events, however.
“You’ve met the king, then!” Clair and Abby both exclaimed enthusiastically. “He’s so handsome! So … kingly!”
Neither Colwin nor Aydin were particularly pleased about that. Abby repressed a smile when they both turned to look at Emma for her reaction. Emma had only been half-heartedly following the conversation, however. She was more interested in watching Caleb and trying to focus her mind away from the wonderful smells coming from Abby’s kitchen.
“So! You’re from earth! What do you think of our new world?”
Emma stared at her a long moment and finally managed to smile weakly. “It’s certainly different!”
Abby looked uncomfortable, studied the misery in her sons’ eyes and the stoic expressions they’d assumed in an attempt to hide it, and finally suggested Emma help her in the kitchen.
A look of alarm flashed over both Aydin’s and Colwin’s faces. “She is tired, mother!” Aydin said.
“Oh! She can just sit and talk to me while I finish up!” Abby said airily.
“That’s what I am afraid of,” Colwin muttered under his breath.
Abby ignored him, eyeing Emma commandingly and Emma reluctantly got off the couch and followed her to the kitchen.
Here it comes, Emma thought nervously as she followed their mother from the room.
“Now! We can chat without worrying about them,” Abby said briskly. “Has it just been awful?”
Emma thought for several moments that she would burst into tears at the sympathy in the other woman’s eyes. “A lot of it,” she admitted.
Abby tsked. “Well, you certainly had an awful time of it! I thought I had a very bad time when I first came, but it pales by comparison to what you must have been through. You look so battered, you poor thing!”